06 Jan 2008 |
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| If you don’t say thank you for a favour received, you are just like a thief...so says a Yoruba adage, in part.
The Nigeria Village Square-NVS has become the place to go for me since June 2007. Prior to that time, most of my articles rotted away on my laptop. I am still uncertain how four of my hundreds of articles surfaced on the Nigerian Guardian in 2007. One article even strayed to the Champion Newspaper without my knowledge. I may have stumbled on the NVS in the past without giving it a serious thought. All that changed when Sonala Olumhense made me come by to the NVS. He had written about late Osamuyia in the Guardian and solicited signatures for the protest letter. Does he earn some points turning me in? I have read about Nigerian issues online on several websites and I always have to swallow whatever pills that I was given, bitter or sweet, stale or fresh. To remain passive was unacceptable and I started blogging in 2006 to express my independent and incorruptible views. But with the NVS, it is a totally different experience. I would come to receive severe knocks for being whom I am. In the days ahead, I am convinced that I would be too busy as I shall return to work come Jan 7 after a very long vacation. I would definitely stay in touch reading/scanning the various articles but it will not be that easy to write at the rate of 10 articles per month! Inspirations will not be enough as time shared between work, family and pleasure will be a limiting factor. The NVS is probably the most tolerant and most user-friendly Nigerian news service in Nigerian history. I stand to be corrected that there is probably nowhere else on this planet where Nigerians have been able to express views in written forms that present with extreme divergence as formulated on the NVS. If the NVS belongs to a Nigerian Politician or businessman for example, 98% of the views here will not see the light of the day and the authors would even be sacked. Some of us would have been dismissed for non-professional conducts. Others would have been witch-hunted for been so honest and truthful. Still, the NVS has become a part of my life. Nevertheless, I have cut down on my comments in recent weeks for some personal reasons. Truthfully, one of the reasons is because I cannot be as tolerant as the NVS itself. For instance, while I respect the views of everyone here in the Village Square, I have stopped joining words with people whose flawed reasoning I cannot change. I cannot imagine myself still joining words with an author or a commentator who would find reasons to justify Maurice Iwu as the umpire of the 2007 charade in Nigeria. I have come to accept that there are certain battles in life that I cannot win. Moreover, I cannot write an article and take responsibility for incomprehensibility for the same reason that I cannot be the examiner and the candidate at the same time. I have learned to walk away when necessary. Indeed, all of us cannot sleep and put our heads in the same direction. In the end, the resolution (as in resolution of forces in vector analysis) of our opinions leaves a resultant implication in Nigeria. As authors and as individuals in different aspects of life, this resolution and our collective actions as Nigerians are revealed in the picture of the greater Nigerian. The question therefore is; are we satisfied with the life we are living/leading revealed in part by the nature of what we write or do? Are we satisfied with the lives of our families, friends and acquaintances abroad and in Nigeria where poverty is the norm? We must think, and deeply too. For every failure we accept or paint as success, several lives are wasted on this platter of compromise. I could go on to market my opinions of what can make a great nation but in this fight, I’ll never win. How can I win when my measure for public accountability is 100% success or nothing? In my little experience in public service, I gave my all, my everything. It was enough to be respected and to enjoy certain privileges. It was adequate for me to be in positions of honour at those various times, which started at age 8 and ended at age 29. How can I win when my adventure in the NVS has given me a clearer picture of a spreadsheet of Nigerian mentalities and unbelievable comprehension of the nature of the problems and evils we are faced with? It’s an awesome dilemma! To the team of pilots behind the NVS, I can only commend your level of tolerance and warm attitudes. It is unbelievably amazing! It must be connected to your orientation, your understanding of the principles of human rights and the respect of such. A few times, you have been given bashes for publishing certain articles (of which I may have written a handful), but you didn’t stumble to the caprices of the online dictators, many of whom have no real Nigerian names. But I am aware that it is not all the articles that came your way that saw daylight but those who don’t write articles at all do not know this. Obviously it remains easy to argue and criticize but it will never be the same as committing pen to paper to get a purposeful message across. Uche Nworah has given propositions to the survival of the Village Square but no public notice has emerged from the pilot team or I missed that. I take it then that the status quo stays. I was quite ashamed that I gave so much time (in the past 7 months) but very little money to the NVS (during the fund raising). I blamed it then on “vacation”. Now that I realized how much I have spent over Christmas and preparing for a new working year, I knew I could have given more to the NVS. Are we ever short of commitments to ourselves and folks back home? We always pray, don’t we? We are also a very hopeful bunch of people. Hence, I will pray and I will keep up the hope in my mind that I would find a reason to give to the NVS in the nearest future. All good things don’t have to come to an end. I can only wish that I continue to find the NVS on a better pedestal each time I return to her. Thank you guys/men/ladies for giving your time, commitment and finances in the name of freedom of expression and for the sake of a better Nigeria. See you around the square! aderounmu@gmai.com
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